Newmont says it recognizes rights of Mining Communities

Accra, Dec. 6, GNA 96 Newmont Gold, Ghana Limited said on Wednesday that the recent incident at Yamfo in the Brong-Ahafo Region in which representatives of Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) and Oxfam, both nongovernmental organisations, were arrested may have been caused by misunderstanding and lack of communication.

In a statement issued in Accra, the Company described the incident as "regrettable and of concern to Newmont" and declared its commitment to open a transparent processes and to support the human rights of the communities in which they operated.

"The processes we have put in place the Ahafo Social Responsibility Forum; public participation meetings; the use of local Public Communication Officers; the community-hosted Information Centres, the Resettlement Committee, the Crop Compensation Committee and the Women's Committee, among others are evidence of our commitment to public participation," it said.

"We are committed to continuously improving these processes to ensure that diverse views and opinions can be expressed." Newmont said as part of its normal community engagement and communication process, Newmont contracted local Public Consultation Officers (PCOs) adding that at the moment, it had 16 PCOs throughout the Ahafo Mine area.

=93A primary hiring requirement is that they originate from local communities. The role of the PCO, among other things, is to facilitate engagement; listen to community issues and concerns and bring feedback to the Company so that corrections and/or modifications can be employed as appropriate and if required.

=93PCOs also inform the communities about Company activities and provide information on job and other opportunities for community members.

"Ultimately, the intent of contracting local community members is to ensure that communities are not intimidated by individuals they are not familiar with and with whom they feel free to voice their opinion, concerns and ideas."

The statement said in the case of the Yamfo and Adrobaa PCOs, they were contractors and had other roles in their communities, such as youth leaders, unrelated to Newmont.

"It was PCOs, as local community members, on instruction from the Chief of Yamfo, Nana Ansah Adu-Baah I, who raised concerns about a meeting purported to be with Newmont. Newmont does not maintain special arrangement with security forces or the Police."

The statement said the Company would support any mechanism or organization that chose to take part in the participation process or assist the communities in their participation.

It also supported the rights of others to express opinions that differed from those of the Company and accepted that mechanisms for expressing views might be associated with the Company's process or external to it.

"However, the processes that bring about those views must be open and transparent," it said.

"Newmont is ready and willing to work with any credible, independent, external evaluation of our performance in the areas of our relationship with security forces; the community; our human rights record and our environmental stewardship in the Ahafo area," the statement said. 6 Dec. 06